Tel Aroma or Aroma fortress is a hilltop in the Shomron, it is over 800 meters above sea level, about 3 km south east from the village of Itamar or about 7 and half km north east from my home in Kfar Tapuach. This site is important because it is believed to be the city of Avimelech the son of Gidon or Gideon the Judge of Israel in the Bible, Book of Judges chapter 9. Archaeologists have found that it was a walled and fortified city in and around the 12th century BCE, 10 water cisterns dug out and carved in the rock beneath this hill in ancient times collected 15,000 cubic meters of water. In the second century BCE the Judean Hashmonian dynasty built a fortress on top of the ruins of the ancient town. This gives us some perspective of the territory controlled by Hashmonians who were descendants of the mighty Judean warrior Yehuda haMacabee who liberated the Temple in Jerusalem from the Greeks and led a sovereign Jewish monarchy in Judea for 80 years 2100 years ago.
Source: Israel in the News
